Rauisuchus

Rauisuchus is a genus of extinct basal archosaur which lived in what is now the Geopark of Paleorrota, Brazil, during the middle Triassic period (240-230 million years ago). It contains one species, R. tiradentes. Named after fossil collector Dr. Wilhelm Rau, Rauisuchus belonged to a group of land-dwelling relatives to crocodiles. These reptiles were among the top predators of their day, eating other reptiles for food and maybe hunting early dinosaurs.

Rauisuchus grew to a length of 4 m (13 ft) and was 90 cm (35 in) high at the hips. It had a weight of around 250 kg (550 lb).

Rauisuchus tyradentes was a Rauisuchian from Middle Triassic of Brazil. It was 4m (13ft) in length and it was a highly carnivorous reptile. Rauisuchus was a basal archosaur and one of the earliest pseudosuchians related to Rauisuchians. Rauisuchus would then go on to diversify into many different shapes anywhere from Africa to Europe to the Americas. Rauisuchus was named after Dr. Wilhelm Rau

Rauisuchus was definitely a predator of early dinosaurs who could not fight back against the much larger and more powerful rauisuchian. Rauisuchus would have hunted similarly to big cats today. Particularly jaguars and tigers since it was not social and probably could not swim very well. Rauisuchus was probably an ambush hunter which would wait for prey to pass then it would accelerate and try to run down its prey before it escaped after it tires out. If it did catch its prey then it would have have little to no difficulty dispatching the prey with a powerful bite to its skull or neck. Rauisuchus would have had nearly no competition in its environment and most of the competition would come from other Rauisuchus. would have acted sort of like a hybrid of today's large carnivores. It had a similar ecological niche to cats but had the body and spirit of a crocodilian. This way we can assume it's mating habits would have involved fighting other males, possibly to the death over the mating rights to females. Then it would have laid its eggs somewhere and guarded them like mother crocodilians do today. Then when they hatched they would have limited care from the mother since they would have been born ready to live on their own.